I'm so excited to welcome Elisavet Arkolaki on my blog today! She is the author of picture book WHERE AM I FROM? which is illustrated by Platon, a graffiti artist.
I met Elisavet through our debut group, and it's been fascinating to watch the process of her book. I was so fortunate to get to read her book in advance. Without further ado, let's get talking! (As always, I'm in the bolded, green text.)
Hi Elisavet,
Welcome to my blog! Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to
write children's books?
Hi Janet, thank you for inviting me here. I was born and raised in Greece, my
husband in Norway, our first kid was born in Malta and our second in Norway. We
speak three languages at home. I also lived in France and Spain prior to
becoming a mum, and most European winters with the kids have been spent in
Thailand. I grew up in a monolingual and rather monocultural society, where
other languages were taught as 'foreign languages', thus the way I experienced
the world during my formative years was very different from our children's.
Thus, it's very high on my list to better understand their world view and offer
them adequate support on their journey. My favorite medium to explore emotions,
concepts, and ideas has always been writing thus it was only natural that I've
now turned to write children's stories. I also curated a complimentary guide
titled 'How to Raise Confident Multicultural Children' as a resource for
parents, caregivers, and teachers which they can download by subscribing to my
newsletter list HERE.
Wow! That is
an impressive mix of countries, languages, and cultures. So I have to ask . . .
I'm guessing you speak Greek, Norwegian, and English in your home. Is that right?
Yes. My husband speaks Norwegian with the kids, I speak Greek with the kids, and the common family language is English.
So amazing. Well, I love
that your kids are at the heart of your writing. Can you tell us about your
book?
Through
stunning murals by artist Platon, ‘Where am I from?’ will take our young ones
on a quest in search of common origins. It's a fun story, crafted for preschoolers
and early readers. It portrays children with different racial and ethnic
backgrounds, living in countries from all six inhabited continents. The
children gather together and try to find a universal answer to the question
'Where am I from?', an answer which isn't true just for them but true for
everyone.
I feel that
this book helps promote the idea that, in the end, when it comes to the very
basics, we're all connected. It's during early childhood that many of our
attitudes and beliefs towards others are shaped, and we form a perception of
the world around us. It is therefore at this young age we should start
introducing these ideas if we want our kids to grow up and create a better
world than we have done so far.
I wholeheartedly agree. We all have so much in common no matter where we
happen to live. What inspired you to write WHERE AM I FROM?
Living an
international life, I find it hard to answer 'Where are you from?' even if I
grew up in one country. Almost half of my life has been lived abroad, my
husband is from another country, we communicate and have formed our
relationship and so many friendships in 'foreign' languages. 'Where are you
from?' is truly a difficult question for so many people, and it implies you're
not local.
If you had
asked me "where are you from?", for instance, the first time I moved
abroad, I would have answered from Greece. I would have probably done the same
the second time I moved to a foreign country. Since then, things have gotten
blurry. I still answer from Greece, but only for the sake of simplicity. In my
case, it's not a question that makes me feel uncomfortable, I just don't know
how to answer any more in a way that won't sound like an essay. Being pointed out
as a foreigner is not an issue for me but if I find it confusing, how would a
child feel? How will my children feel when they are asked this question?
Children are vulnerable. They need to blend in, be part of the group and they
need to feel local.
Once
questions starting popping up at the dinner table about our countries of
origin, the places we've lived, where our families and friends live, our
travels, and the countries of the world, I felt I needed to be proactive and
prepare them for the future. Soon other people would ask them questions. So I
came up with the story Where am I from?.
However, the actual thread that began this story is found on a backpacking trip
in Australia back in 2009 while I was riding a bus and listening to a local
radio station. A journalist was asking tourists "Where do you come from?"
I heard all sorts of cities and countries until he approached a mum and her
young boy. He asked the boy ‘So, where do you come from?’ The boy replied the
obvious, ‘I come from my mum’s belly’. I never forgot that phrase. It was
genius in its simplicity. So this is from where I started developing this story:
from the very end of it. 😊
That answer is genius.
We are all connected, and sometimes it takes a child to see it. Speaking of
children, I love how the children in your book have come from all over the
world. Are any of them inspired by children you know?
When I was
writing the story I chose countries from all 6 inhabited continents. The choice
was made based on countries that are dear to me like Malta and Norway where my
children have been born. I chose countries where friends of mine have been born
or live like Venezuela and Nigeria. Others are from countries like China where I
would love to visit one day, plus I felt the words would flow nicely within the
story. Australia, as mentioned, is where the seed for this story got planted.
Then, in order to check whether there was indeed a market for such a book that would
be illustrated entirely with spray paint graffiti murals, I ran a Kickstarter
campaign. It would be a very time consuming, costly, and difficult project so
we needed to make sure people would be interested in it, and that it was worth
the effort. Because of that, all the kids that you see in the book are based on
real kids. Their parents commissioned the art, and all characters except one
are based on people of mixed cultural heritage; even the mum and the baby
characters.
That is so
cool! What a gift from those parents to their kids. So in conjunction with that,
I love that they all travel by animals or mythical creatures. Why did you
decide to do that, and how did you choose their animals?
This was
actually the editor's idea while we were working on the structure of the story
(developmental editing phase). Originally, I had included the lion, the troll
and the kangaroo, but there weren't animals and other creatures in every scene.
She suggested it would really fire up the imagination of the kids and would
make the book more interesting both visually and from a narrative point of
view, and I agreed. I wanted us to use characters and landmarks that were part
of the fauna, the history, the culture and/or mythology of each land like the
gorgeous Chinese dragon, the jaguar in Venezuela and the troll in Norway.
I love that! And thank you for the sneak peek for my readers! Good thing for editors, right? So what takeaway do you hope readers will get
from your book?
My wish is that the children will grasp how beautiful, colorful and diverse our
world is. I hope they will discover that we all have common origins that go far
beyond arbitrary borders on a map, borders which often move. There is, indeed,
a universal answer to the question 'Where am I from?' I would also love this
book to initiate a dialogue between adults and children about art and the
different mediums and tools people use to express themselves. Street art, in
particular, is a very powerful medium to express ideas and reach out to the
broader public. I love that most of the graffiti has been painted in schools
and the kids will get to see gorgeous art every day.
The art is brilliant, and those kids really are lucky! How did you come up with
the idea of using graffiti art for the images? It's so beautiful and I really
wish I could see the originals!
It feels
like everything is connected. Early 2009 I wrote my very first commissioned
magazine article as a correspondent from Barcelona, Spain. It was a piece about
Miss Van, a street artist from France who has been residing for many years in
Barcelona. I grew up in a big city, Athens (5,000,000 people), and I've been
influenced by urban art. I've always loved graffiti in its pure art form. Fast
forward to 2017: I was toying with the idea of having my first children's book
illustrated with street art and discussing it with Platon, the husband of my
oldest childhood friend, who's a very talented street artist.
From a
creative standpoint, and to our knowledge, spray paint graffiti has not been
used as a medium for illustrating a children's picture book in English. And I
can totally see why. Not only does it require an enormous amount of time, but
it's also very physically challenging to be out there painting so many walls,
and not just for the obvious reasons like having to stand up for hours. Did you
know for instance that spray paint attracts mosquitos? lol.
Umm, no. I
did NOT know that. Yikes!
Also, having
a background in marketing, I sensed that graffiti art would help us bring the
message across in an effective, powerful way, that would also make the book
newsworthy. As a side effect, it could challenge the belief shared by many that
street art is just 'vandalism'. I remember an online 'argument' on Facebook
with a guy who commented under a photo of one of our murals that 'this is not
graffiti', and when I asked him why he said that, he replied, "cause this
is art." There is still this misconception that graffiti is just ugly
tags.
Clearly,
graffiti can be beautiful, and your book is already changing minds! And I just love getting a glimpse of the real-life image as painted on the wall.
Okay, one
last question. Here on my blog, I have a fascination for personalized license
plates. What do you think the children in your story might choose for a
personalized license plate (even though they are definitely all too young to
drive!)? (And do they have personalized license plates in Norway?)
That's a
funny one :). My best guess would be 'Future Global Citizen'. I have no idea if
they do personalized license plates in Norway. Is it a thing in the USA?
Haha! Fair question. But it is
definitely a thing in the USA. 😊
Thanks so
much for stopping in. This was all fascinating! Wishing you and your book all
the best!
And to all my readers, please find Elisavet's social media links below, as well as
links for where you can get your own copy of WHERE AM I FROM?
~~~
Elisavet
Arkolaki is the author of the graffiti-illustrated children's picture book WHERE
AM I FROM? (Faraxa Publishing, early 2020). The trickiest question you can ask
Elisavet and her family is ‘Where are you from?’ because they are from
everywhere! Passionate about travel and inspired by global learning, she raises
her own children in between countries, cultures, and languages. She writes to
build cultural understanding and sensitivity in young children while they are
still eager to learn.
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